Lemmings! Scratch Game

What’s the trick to getting S4 pupils excited? Get them to make a game! Digital Games involve all the programming constructs (and more) required for Standard Grade and Intermediate 2 Computing. My classes seem to think it’s fun but I know it’s work and that they are using programming constructs to solve problems in a way which I can later assess.

This is a little task I devised to introduce the concept of IF statements and message passing (a bit like parameter passing but actually a bit more like encapsulation in object oriented languages). This program includes variables, input capture, animation and a number of other programming areas but it’s great fun to put together and pupils very much use a “trial and error” approach to solving the problem. I don’t expect them to solve it straight off the plan…they need to try it out and play with the code to reach a successful solution.

A video of one of my pupils final games is shown above and the source code, graphics and worksheet can be found here. And if you scroll down you can even play the Java version!